Tigers turn page on last year's Cal game

Coach Mike Anderson wants to focus on this game, not last year's loss.

By Ross Taylor

Published Dec. 4, 2008

Some losses never stop stinging.

One season ago, Missouri left Berkeley, Calif., with an 86-72 loss to Cal and a hobbled DeMarre Carroll, who in the waning stages of the game suffered an ankle injury that lingered for the majority of the season.

But coach Mike Anderson doesn't want to talk about last year's game.

"We've turned the page on last year," Anderson said. "That happened, that's history."

But if Anderson's sentiments were supposed to be the team's talking points for the week, Carroll didn't get the message.

"I really don't even want to think about that game — a nightmare," Carroll said. "We owe Cal one."

Before the season, Sunday's game looked like a pairing of two reclamation projects.

Anderson's efforts to re-establish his program both on the court and in the community have been well chronicled. Now in his third season and finally boasting a roster primarily of his recruits, Anderson finally seems to have Missouri's proverbial corner-to-turn within reach.

At Cal, the road to reclamation is just beginning.

Despite a 219-154 record with the Golden Bears, Cal fired Ben Braun, its coach of 12 seasons, after a disappointing 2007-08 season that left the team outside the NCAA Tournament for the fourth time in five seasons.

Now, Mike Montgomery, who spent 18 years at Cal's archrival, Stanford, is attempting to install his post-oriented style of basketball on a youth-laden Cal roster.

Cal enters Sunday's game with a 6-1 record, with the sole loss coming at the hands of Florida State in the championship game of the Global Sports Classic. Like Missouri, Florida State is unranked but receiving votes in The Associated Press Top 25 poll.

"We've got a lot of things we need to get better at, but we're on the right track," Montgomery said.

The Tigers also sport only one loss on the season, a 75-71 loss to No. 14 Xavier, in the opening round of the Puerto Rico Tip Off. However, unlike Cal, the Tigers can boast a win over a ranked opponent, having defeated then-No. 19 USC, 83-72, in Puerto Rico.

After a blowout win against Arkansas-Pine Bluff on Tuesday, Anderson admitted that there are nights he has to "go in there and get 'em up" when addressing his players. But Sunday's game, which will be televised on ESPNU, shouldn't require any extra motivation for his players or the Missouri crowd.

"Hopefully we'll have a tremendous turnout crowd for national TV," Anderson said. "These are the games guys live for."